Hola!!!

 Hola everybody!!!

To sum up my week in a sentence-- I've been chased by 33 dogs, attacked by a goose, and peed on by a turtle after I risked my life running out in the road to save it! Turd...le;) There are so many dogs here it's nuts! I kicked one in the mouth because it wouldn't stop chasing me. It almost bit my foot but luckily I have fabulous kicking skills. Also, there was this giant German Shepard that was barking at us one day as we were riding past so I barked back because I thought it was chained up! He wasn't. That thing came at me so fast!!! I didn't know my feet could touch the handle bars! 

Last week after P-day we got done playing soccer and as we were walking into the church one of the elders said "Texas why are you so hot?!" and I turned to the elder and said "I told you my name is not Texas!!" So everybody in our district calls me Texas.

 

This week flew by. We have such a hard time getting people to church because they are afraid of border patrol. Our ward is literally 95 percent illegal. I wish that I had a giant bus to take everyone to church.  We find ourselves teaching a lot about faith and that they will be blessed for going back to church. It's awesome though because the one and only white guy that is in our ward works for border patrol, but when we are all in church none of that matters.  We all become the same and we are all trying to become better. We are all children of God. 

There are lots of things that I would say are hard about missions such as not talking to your loved ones whenever you want, feeling tired all of the time, getting mad diarrhea from the spicy food, being sweaty all of the time from the heat, but the hardest thing for me is not being sassy to people and finding nice ways to explain why I'm right. One member told us that he believed that Joseph Smith was resurrected. another guy told us that he believed we came from aliens and one lady yelled at us on her porch to not "worship Joseph Smith". It takes every fiber of my being to just tell them to have a good day and leave! I would love to just tell them that Hell is a lot hotter than south Texas!

Every time we go to a members house to eat they make us get seconds. Everyone makes me eat more because they say I'm "too skinny!" All the Mexican ladies like to try and fatten me up. The food hurts so good, if you catch my drift. 

Also, my Spanish is coming along. This week I was praying for the food and muerto means death and cuerpo means body.  I asked in my prayer that our food would blessed and strengthen our deaths. I also was teaching about the plan of salvation and I was teaching about showing God that we love him. Monstrar means to show and mensrar means menstrate. so I taught that we menstruate to God that we love him.

This week when we were tracking we were walking to a member's house when some little kids came up to us because their friends dared them to talk to us. It turns out one of the kids name Jose has been baptized but his friend Marcos who is 12 hasn't. We told them we were going to teach a member a lesson and that they should come with us. They did!  They were a little nervous about coming because they didn't know whose house it was so I reassured them and told them that I didn't know the member either.  During the lesson when my companion was teaching I leaned over and asked Marcos how he felt and he said really good.  He is such a smart kid and knows a lot about God. After the lesson we were walking back and I asked Marcos if he would like to be baptized by the same authority that Christ was baptized and he said yes! We came back a few days later to teach him and his 8 year old brother came out on the porch and listened and after I asked him if he would like to be baptized and he said yes too!  We are planning on May 17th. 

This week we also taught Daisy and Diana, the two sisters that own the convenience store.  We teach them behind the counter while they are selling beers and stuff but we still had the spirit while teaching them. They work a lot and so they don't get the chance to read a lot but our lessons have been really good with them.  We invited them to be baptized but they said they weren't ready. I told them they don't have to be perfect to be baptized.  I love that I have a past. I can sense things that my companion can't and I use my past to teach. It turns out she likes to drink. I told her that giving up those things that give only temporary happiness for the things that give us eternal happiness is hard but it's so much more worth it!!  We are working hard with them to get them to come unto Christ and I can only hope that they accept our message!! 

I  hope you have a great week! Thank you for all of the support, love, and prayers! They keep me going! I love you all. Luchemos en la cause celestial truinfal!! Te Amo!

                             

Hermana Thompson 

One Week Left! Then off to TEXAS!

Howdy!! (I'm practicing for Texas)

This week flew by so fast! We got our itineraries on Wednesday. I leave a week from today!! Crazy! We leave on April 6th. Our fight is on United Airlines and our flight number is 5244.  We fly out of Salt lake at 8 am. And our second flight is flight number 5241 from Houston to McAllen. We should arrive at 2:00 in the afternoon.  Next time I write home I'll be in Texas!! Our Zone and District is super close. We all have fun teasing each other everyday. There are 14 elders in our zone and I get my fair share of teasing probably because I make fun of them all. I dared one of the elders to eat a banana with the peel still on it and he did!! So then I had to eat a grapefruit with the peel still on it and it was awful. Hanging around a bunch of 18 year old boys all day has kind of turned me into one! To say the least I haven't matured one bit) Today we were eating lunch outside and I was complaining that my salad was warm and how gross it was but I just kept eating it and then a few minutes later I found a dead caterpillar in my salad and I may have over reacted a little! All of the Elders gave me crap for that. It's been fun getting to know people from different places and backgrounds. And I'm getting pretty tired of saying goodbye to people! It's going to be hard saying goodbye to everyone this week but we are all off to bigger and better things! Hermana Browning is letting me cut her hair today.  We will see how that goes. Pray for me. Actually, pray for her. I've noticed the past few weeks that the little things in life really are the best things! Like finding out your skirt has pockets or the days when the cafeteria has sprinkled donuts or oatmeal (pathetic I know).  This week nothing super special happened. We finished teaching our investigators and I'm actually super happy about that. I always left super frustrated each lesson because I can't express entirely what I want to because of the language barrier. I'm sure its going to be ten times worse when i get to Texas and the investigators are real. This week I heard a quote that says, "Get on your knees and pray as if everything depended on the Lord, then get on your feet and work as if everything depended on you".  I LOVE that quote. If we work our hardest then the Lord will provide if we turn to him. Nothing super exciting happened this week, just more Spanish learning and a billion devotionals! I'm getting pretty tired of sitting through talks and such. Everybody have a great week! Enjoy watching conference in your pajamas because I have to sit on hard chairs in a skirt. (boo) Thank you for all of the love and support!! Buenos dias. 

                                                                                                            Hermana Thompson 

2 Weeks Left

Hola familia y amigos?!

I have 2 weeks left!!! OLE!!!! My spelling and English are already getting bad.  It's super annoying but at the same time I'm too lazy to spell check so sorry.  Not sorry.  This week has been good. It went by pretty fast and slow at the same time.  Time here is really weird.  I also learned that nothing ruins your Friday like realizing its only Tuesday.  

I quit the choir because I didn't get kicked out.  Hermana Browning and I study and talk while our companions go to choir.  We get along really well.  I would literally go insane if she wasn't here.  On Tuesday while choir was going on, she and I decided to go outside and sit on the grass and while we were talking we saw this cat walking around the middle of the MTC campus.  Obviously I went and caught it and snuck it inside to our classroom.  I named it Nalga.
 

I was getting pretty tired of doing crappy chores for our "service" in the mornings so I may have flirted a little with the janitor so that he would give us a good chore for once.  We got to vacuum the chapels with ghost buster vacuums.  Also,  I decided that Sundays are the worst here.  The food is always disgusting and I'm tired of sitting through a billion devotionals.  I had to give a talk in Spanish in sacrament meeting and I forgot the paper that my talk was written on!!  I had to wing it! it was on faith in Jesus Christ and  I told them I forgot my paper and that I was having faith in Jesus Christ without it.

Feeling the spirit all of the time is so great, although it does make me tired.  Kind of weird. Ever since I got set apart as a missionary I haven't had stomach problems other than the orange juice incident.  Before I came I was debating whether to wait and get everything figured out with the stomach issues etc. but decided not to. It was the biggest leap of faith for me not knowing what was going to happen but I know that God is watching over me and over every one of us and that through sincere prayers and faith he will answer them!  It's a feeling of peace knowing that I am where I need to be and for some crazy reason the Mexicans in Texas need me to come and feed their souls and I can't wait for it!  I can't wait for all the trials that are going to come my way and for the life long lessons I am about to learn. Thank you for all of the prayers and support! I love you all!  Have a good week!!

Hermana Thompson 

Disclaimer

HOLA!!!

So I do have a disclaimer before I begin. When we are teaching people in Spanish and I don't understand what they say I usually just giggle or say "ah muy bien" or I'll stare at them like a deer in the headlights because I don't know what's going on.  Last week when I told the story of how we were teaching that couple about prayer and we told them you pray for things you are grateful for and he said he didn't have anything to be grateful for because his mom died.  Right after he said that I laughed because I didn't know what he said... and my companion leaned over and told me that he had just told us his mom just died. I learned not to laugh if I don't know whats going on. That could have been the reason he cried too. But other than that the lesson went really well!  

This week went by pretty fast. Learning Spanish has been much easier probably because we got a new Spanish teacher and he is super "Hot", so that's nice. I'm also forgetting how to spell things in English and its super annoying, so now I just look stupid in two languages.  Everyone has been telling me to not drink the orange juice here because it makes you get mad diarrhea. Seeing that I already get sick I was like "whatever" and I accepted the challenge. One of the Elders told me when I was drinking it, "I feel bad for you... well actually I feel bad for the toilet!"  He was right.  . Then of course my "super cool" companion comes in after awhile to make things worse by saying "Is everything okay sister?!"  I learned two things! Number one I can't even be alone when I poop and "number two" (haha)  I really do know to NOT drink the orange juice here!  

The other day I decided to actually work out during gym time and go running... I forgot how awful it is. So basically I'm sticking with my naps in the middle of the track. Also the other district in our zone left and we got a new district that has 8 elders in it! So there are 14 boys, my companion and I, and the other two sisters. I thought having 4 brothers was bad. Its been fun though. Our branch president and his wife are really nice too. Except every time his wife hugs me she wraps her arms around my neck and basically chokes me out!! I cringe when I see her but luckily  I have had lots of practice holding my breath from Landon trying to make me pass out all the time growing up. 

I still haven't been kicked out of the choir (YET).  On Tuesday we sung at the devotional and Elder Cook of the 12 spoke. It was kind of a cool experience. I also realized that It doesn't take much to make my day here. There is this table in the girls dorm building that is the "free food" table and I found a push pop on it! It was the best day ever! 

I  love you all! Thanks for all of your support, letters, thoughts and prayers. It takes more than finding a push pop to get through some days! Have a good week!!  

Love, 

Hermana Thompson 

Week 2 of the MTC

Howdy!!

So I have basically aged like 60 years since Ive been here! I eat oatmeal for breakfast. I'm sore from doing nothing (probably from my crappy bed)  We have dinner at like 4 in the afternoon. And I literally fall asleep wherever I sit down!! When we go to the gym I go up to the track and start to do yoga but I always fall asleep! Yesterday they had this big meeting for all of the sisters in the gym so half way through I obviously started to fall asleep but I woke up to a bunch of girls screaming because there was a bat flying around the gym! They make us do "service" cleaning twice a week but it's really just cleaning the MTC at 6 in the morning. I can't help but imagine it's what Hell is like.... mopping floors before the sun is out. Also everyone here sings wherever they go and it's really weird. I sometimes feel like I'm in a really crappy musical. So this one time I was walking past the bathrooms and nobody was really in the building, but there was a girl in the showers singing at the top of her lungs, so naturally I walked in there and screamed to scare her! I'm sure she peed the shower because she screamed so loud it was hilarious! On Monday it snowed here so after class we were walking to lunch and I made a snowball and hid behind a tree to throw at one of the Elders who I'm friends with. So I'm waiting behind this tree for the Elders to come out of the building and when I saw them I threw the snowball as hard as I could and the Elder I meant to throw it at saw me and dodged it and so my snowball hit another Elder in the crotch!! We had a good laugh... well at least I did. Since I've been here I joined the choir they have and we sing at the devotionals. I'm awful and so I'm surprised they haven't kicked me out yet. I like it though because we get to leave class early. This past week we starting teaching "investigators" (in spanish) and some of them are members of the church and some are not but they won't tell us who isn't. The people we teach is an older mexican couple named Hely and Jose. The first lesson we taught them was about prayer. Probably in the worst Spanglish ever. We taught them that in our prayers we say what we are thankful for and Jose told us that he had nothing to be thankful for because his mom had just passed away. I had only practiced talking about our prayer lesson in Spanish so I was a little worried that our lesson was about to go in a different direction and it did. So I taught him the best that I could that families are essential to God's plan and that I knew that he would see his mother again. He cried. The spirit was so strong in that room and that's when I realized that although I didn't know the language perfect, I'm not the one teaching these people, the spirit is. This week has been much better. Thank you all for the DearElder notes, support, prayers and love. I am thankful for them everyday and couldn't make it without them! Love you all!  

- Hermana Thompson

My New Boyfriend 

First Email From The MTC!

Hola mi familia y amigos!!

Where to start... This has been the longest week of my life!! My companions name is Hermana Webb. She is from somewhere it Utah Valley, I forgot. We are nothing alike.  She likes to sing and she draws dragons. I made her draw me a dragon to put in my scriptures. She is super nice though and has taught me a lot. I'm not used to having a companion. . The only time I get to be alone is when I poop, so I guess that's nice. There are ten of us total in our District. I'm the oldest. Six Elders and four Sisters including myself. We have all gotten pretty close since we have 8 hours of Spanish classes everyday. The Elders are hilarious. All of the Elders are going to Texas. My companion is going to Georgia. The other two sisters are going to Virginia and Arkansas. Spanish is hard and I hate it. My district is used to seeing me cry at least a few times per class. We all had a good laugh when I got up to throw away a tissue box because I had cried through a WHOLE box. (pathetic I know) I think learning Spanish is worse than math. Things are starting to go better though. I got to have two naps today, it was magical. My favorite part of the day is gym time. The Elders are pretty impressed with my awesome basketball skills. I've beat them in a few games of lightning. The food here is like eating at a elementary school cafeteria but with lots of choices. So I eat a lot of fruit and chocolate milk. I also get to sleep on a bunk bed which was kind of cool until I realized my mattress is made out of rocks and the whole bed squeaks when I move, but its the first twin sized bed where my feet don't hang off so that's a plus. Yesterday was fast Sunday so when we broke our fast we went to the cafeteria and I was super excited, but for dinner they had this gross fake plastic steak and shrimp that we were supposed to break our fast with. I was so mad! So I had like five rolls.Today we went to the Provo temple and did a sealing session and that kind of put in perspective the whole reason why we are here to be missionaries is to bring families to Christ here on Earth. It's calming to be here but overwhelming at the same time. It's hard not knowing a soul but we are all here for the same purpose which makes it easier. My mind is having a hard time but my heart and soul are in the right place. I love you all. Thank you for the letters and support! 

Until next week,  

Hermana Thompson